Are there any notorious ones of Cheney, from early on, lying around waiting to be linked to?

Way to go Ezra! Matt writes a piece where he forthrightly admits that his colleagues write fluff pieces in order to gain access, but Ezra leaps into action lest we conclude (correctly) that this is corrupt, courtier-like sycophancy. I presume the post was also a warning to Matt to dial down the candor because it would be unbecoming for the lowly masses to get the "wrong" (ie right) idea.

She didn't even get a quote from Kenny Loggins.

raivo pommer
raimo1@hot.ee-www.google.ee

OSTEUROPA BANKEN

Mit der Ukraine und Kasachstan haben jetzt die ersten unter Kapitalabzug und Abwertung der Landeswährung leidenden Länder in Osteuropa und Zentralasien Devisenkontrollen eingeführt. In der Ukraine müssen Banken die Landeswährung Griwna zu einem festgelegten Dollar-Kurs kaufen, der weit über dem Schwarzmarktpreis liegt. Die Zentralbank hat offenbar die Aufsichtsratsvorsitzenden der wichtigsten Banken einbestellt und gedroht, sie bei Verstößen persönlich haftbar zu machen.

Vom 23. April an sollen zudem neue Vorschriften gelten, die Banken zum Verkauf von Fremdwährungen gegen Griwna zwingen. In Kasachstan dürfen schon jetzt ausländische Ölgesellschaften nach Berichten der Agentur Bloomberg keine Gewinne mehr in ihre Stammländer zurückführen. Heimische Exportunternehmen würden gezwungen, Fremdwährungen in die Landeswährung Tenge zu tauschen, heißt es.

There truly is a journalistic dilemma here. A beat sweetener does little harm (if it really is an introduction of a new face - as long as it doesn't ignore all the negatives that might be present).

However, a beat bitterer is probably deadly to future contact. A honest revelation of bad stuff from the past, or even worse, a hit piece that lacks balance, surely will result in no future contacts that are productive.

I'm pretty sure that my journo-ethics would be challenged by this binary reality. Having your name on an administration enemies list is probably not good for continued access and it's benefits. Even pulling punches can be dangerous.

Bravery, sometimes called integrity, is easier to applaud in others than to self-administer.

"I'm not sure this is quite as calculated as Matt implies."

And you're not sure that it's not. Neither you nor Matt have any relevant experience or other ability to evaluate the facts. On the other hand, people who do have that experience say that these pieces are entirely cynical and calculated.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19570.html

The nicest thing about your blog, Ezra, is that you understand that it's important to know what you're talking about before you open your mouth. This time was an exception.

If it's not a ploy to increase access through flattery, it's not a beat sweetener.

There's nothing intrinsically disreputable about biographical sketches of important public figures.

There's news value in getting a basic biographical sketch of a new player on the record.

The problem is when the piece is a calculated flattery-for-access quid pro quo. What's worse is when you get a political/journalistic culture where beat sweeteners become the price of admission.

I think the point is many of these exercises have same the consistency (and depth) as celebrity profiles: fluffy, largely positive presentations that rarely dive into anything difficult or controversial; it's the ones where the person is a "genius", "quietly effective" and all the rest (did we mention you're a snappy dresser and love Chinese food?). Yeah, it's nice to get to know the "man or woman in the news" but rarely do these pieces offer insight; rather they provide gossipy details, "just like us" details of almost no relevance, and sunny descriptions of future work that may or not bear out. That's why the people who profile Brad Pitt for a living are seen as shallow... and it's why "beat sweeteners" are considered fluff. You want to be seen as serious... do the serious stuff.

Beat Sweeteners that applied to Mr. Cheney during the Bush Administration were code named Dick Beaters.

Just thought you should know.

-GSD

Ezra,

You wrote

KLEIN (4/06):

"[Gore’s] address was the keynote for the We Media conference, held at the Associated Press headquarters in New York last October [2005] and attended by an audience that included both old media luminaries and new media innovators. In attendance were Tom Curley, president of the AP, Andrew Heyward, president of CBS News, and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, all leading lights of a media establishment that, five years earlier, had deputized itself judge, jury, and executioner for Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, spinning each day’s events..."

If you are smart enough to realize the press nefariously destroyed a presidential candidate, why stick your head in the sand here? Looking for a promotion?

Spring love is in bloom But soon the aspens will be turning. Their roots do grow together.

The most blatant and annoying example I can think of was the piece on Rahm Emmanuel in the New Yorker by Lizza. I thought when I first read it, "man, Lizza didn't even let Krugman respond to Rahm's (totally stupid) insults," and then when I found out Lizza is already contracted to write a book about the Obama Presidency's first year, I was crestfallen. Shouldn't the New Yorker be a bit more discerning than to take pieces from people with such obvious conflicts of interest?

The fact that no all profiles may be "beat sweeteners" seems like it would be intuitively obvious. The issue is that "beat sweeteners" are not acknowledged or known to the vast majority of the public. It seems clear which is the more important point. Up with Kornblut!

Free advice: this is where you buried yourself-

"And I think that's the truth of most beat sweeteners: They're legitimate profiles with positive side effects."

Why not just assert "all"?

Have fun at inevitable brunch. We'll check the Twazzle for updates.

Beat sweetener:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_a84MQVxzC3Y/SdKaVFU6vqI/AAAAAAAAApU/KUzZMSOU9jc/s1600-h/Dog_flower_diaper3.jpg

Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down, helps the medicine go down!

I agree. It is a typical Greenwaldian non sequitur to insist that any journalism about political indiders that is not first and foremost an attempted cutthroat expose of some sort is therefore sycophantic or careerist asskissing.